Nightwalkers 5e: Awesome Encounter Suggestions, Stat Block and Guide

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

Nightwalker Stat Block

Today, we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Nightwalker, a CR 20 pile of undead nightmare fuel from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes that’s arguably one of the most terrifying adversaries in all of Dungeons & Dragons 5e. 

Standing a full 20 feet tall, these striding, flying avatars of death (or maybe anti-life might be more appropriate) spend most of their time trapped within the Negative Plane – a realm of nothingness and death so hostile that it makes the ashen Shadowfell, which you have to pass through to reach the Negative Plane, look like a Sunday afternoon in the park by comparison.

Sometimes, however, they escape their bleak imprisonment. A Nightwalker loose upon the material plane is a terrifying prospect as these entities sow death and destruction wherever they tread. 

A Dungeon Master’s Guide To Running a Nightwalker 

First, let’s take a closer look at exactly why the Nightwalker is such a terrifying adversary.

First of all, its basic stats already make it a fearsome opponent.

Sure, it’s got a relatively low armor class, but you could hit this thing with everything you’ve got a dozen times over, and it probably won’t even break a sweat.

With an average hit point pool just shy of 300, not to mention damage resistances and immunities aplenty (granted, by the time the party actually encounters one of these things they’re probably going to be walking armories of magical weapons, but still), any adventurers who feel like going toe to toe with a Nightwalker are in for a long, grueling fight. 

Then, the fact that any characters looking to get into a stand-up fight with a Nightwalker are going to be committing to a long, long combat makes this monster’s Annihilating Aura, Finger of Doom, and particularly its Enervating Aura especially deadly. 

The fact that Enervating Aura (the Nightwalker’s basic melee attack) not only deals a juicy amount of damage but also lowers the target’s maximum HP is just… it’s just the nastiest thing.

With the Nightwalker’s aura dealing damage and probably giving it advantage on an attack with a +12 bonus to hit anyway means this creature is, in all likelihood, going to be semi-permanently stealing a chunk of someone’s max HP every single turn. 

High-level characters survive and outlast powerful enemies because they have access to healing magic.

Reduce the maximum health you can top a character up to, and you’re seriously hampering the ability for any cleric or paladin to keep themselves and their allies alive. 

And then, to add insult to probably fatal injury, the Nightwalker’s Finger of Doom has the chance to frighten and paralyze its targets.

It gets to do this at least once and then has a 1-in-6 chance or recharging its ability every subsequent turn. 

Oh, so the Nightwalker just gets to paralyze a character, damage it, and then hit it again for double damage with a melee attack that reduces the target’s maximum HP.

Then, on its next turn, it gets to try and hit that paralyzed character twice more – with advantage – and deal critical damage if it hits. Okay. 

You should be getting an idea by this point as to why Nightwalkers are so deadly.

They mindlessly stride out of the Negative plane, bearing down on the largest concentration of life they can sense, set on extinguishing it with a single-minded resolve that’s deeply chilling. 

Smart players may have the idea of keeping the Nightwalker at range so they can whittle away its massive hit point pool with spells and missile fire. Good luck.

With a movement speed of 40 feet and the ability to fly, unless you have some pretty speedy mounts, this is going to be a very short chase. 

Of course, the CR system doesn’t expect PCs to actually fight a Nightwalker until they’re in the final tier of play, somewhere between 17th and 20th level. At this point, the players are basically gods and goddesses themselves.

Wizards can wish reality into new and interesting shapes after a good night’s sleep. Clerics are closer in power to the deities they worship than to the average 1st-level hero. Fighters can… hit stuff a bunch of times. 

Now, I’m a pretty vocal proponent of the idea that high-level D&D isn’t actually very fun.

Sure, having access to all those cool abilities is appealing to players, but in practice the experience is almost always tedious and overwhelming.

20th-level characters have so many special abilities, spells, magic items – you name it – to keep track of that the pure terror of fighting something like a Nightwalker often gets lost amid reams of text, huge spell lists, and an ocean of dice. 

Likewise, the surface appeal of running high-level D&D is often that you actually get to throw monsters like a Nightwalker (or perhaps a Tarrasque if you’re a traditionalist) at your players. Once again, the reality is much the same. 

This is a shame because I personally think the Nightwalker is an amazing monster and that fighting one would be the highlight of a campaign.

Heck, how about fighting multiple Nightwalkers? What about a whole adventure or even a campaign about a city besieged by a never-ending tide of these tall (some might say titanic) creatures? 

Because I’ll probably never run another super-high-level game of 5e, not to mention the fact that I think the idea of nightmare undead streaming forth from the Negative Plane is super evocative, I’ve (somewhat predictably) homebrewed a lesser version of the Nightwalker for you to put in front of a mid-tier party.

Also, I’ve included notes on how to make them a little varied in terms of appearance and ability. 

The results of randomly rolling up a Lesser Nightwalker could be significantly less or honestly almost as deadly as the original, so be careful, and make sure your players know what they’re getting into. 

The Negative Plane: Summoning and Banishing a Nightwalker 

The way in which Nightwalkers are brought into the world (and how to send them back to the Negative Plane if your players are smart enough to realize that fighting head-on is more trouble than it’s worth) is really interesting. 

The Negative Plane, which exists within the Shadowfell, is a place of virtually guaranteed death for any mortal who travels there. The lowest basement of the Nine Hells would be an easier time. At least devils can be bargained with. 

When a living creature passes from the Shadowfell into the Negative Plane, they allow a Nightwalker to escape. The Nightwalker then rampages through the Shadowfell and material plane beyond doing what it does best.

The person who entered the Negative Plane is trapped there until the Nightwalker re-enters its home, which it won’t do willingly.

Also, if a Nightwalker dies while outside of the Negative Plane, the creature it swapped places with is trapped there forever. 

Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes recommends tempting it back to the rift between worlds using large numbers of living things.

What the PCs can do to actually get it back through the big hole in space, however, isn’t described. Presumably liberal applications of the shove action won’t be enough.